in opposition to Håkon, along with Sigurd Erlingsson Ribbung and two other pretenders. However, the meeting ended with Håkon being confirmed as king. As Håkon grew up and gradually took the reins of power into his own hands, Skule's position steadily declined. In an attempt at preserving the peace between the two, Håkon married Skule's daughter Margaret in 1225. In 1237 Skule was given the title of duke (hertogi), the first time the title was used in Norway. This was not sufficient to placate him, and in 1239 he had himself declared king of Norway and launched a war against King Håkon. His revolt was unsuccessful, and in 1240 he was killed by King Håkon's men after seeking refuge in a monastery in Nidaros. The civil war era was at an end. Views on the civil wars Contemporary views Civil wars and internal strife in royal families were common in the Middle Ages, in Norway as in other European countries. However, some contemporary accounts show people viewed the civil war era as notably different from what had gone before. Theodoricus the Monk, who wrote a history of Norway in Latin c. 1180, decided to end with the death of King Sigurd the Crusader in 1130 as he considered it ... utterly unfitting to record for posterity the crimes, killings, perjuries, parricides, desecration of holy places, the contempt for God, the plundering no less of the clergy than of the whole people, the abductions of women and other abominations which it would take long to enumerate which had occurred since then. The English historian William of Newburgh, writing c. 1200, writes of Norway that ... for more than a century back, although the succession of kings there had been rapid, yet none of them had ended his days by age or sickness, but all had perished by the sword, leaving the dignity of empire to their assassins as their lawful successors; so that, indeed, the expression, "Hast thou killed, and also taken possession?" [cf. 1 Kings 21:19] may seem to apply to all who reigned there for so long a space of time. Modern views Modern historians have put forward many views and explanations of the civil war era. The contemporary sources, the sagas, strongly emphasise the personal nature of the conflicts—wars arose as a result of the struggle between different people for the possession of the throne. The unclear succession